UNIONDALE, N.Y. - The math doesn't call for a surrender solution for the Flyers, even if logic argues otherwise. The 4-1 defeat to the Islanders at Nassau Coliseum doesn't necessarily deep-six them, it just forces them to bury reality a little deeper in their confounded collective conscience.
"We know where we sit," Scott Hartnell said. "We know how big this game was. It's frustrating. You can't expect to get one goal and win a game."
If they allowed themselves an objective view, however, the Flyers could gaze at this season gone awry and admit that while scoring one goal isn't going to win much, it does fit their modus in-operandi.
With nine games remaining in a regular season that now seems shorter than ever, the Flyers are still a club with an offense that can't match up with so many other teams unless it outnumbers the other guys, and a defense thin to begin with, and now devastated by injury.
What's new is a goalie in Steve Mason who was just fine, thank you, even in defeat ... even when put out on the ice so that the club bosses can get a live-action look at what quite possibly could be next season's gradiose goalie plan.
As for the playoff math, maybe that's best left to be explored next year, too.
With a second-straight loss, the Flyers (17-19-3, 37 points) shouldn't break out their dusty white flag just yet. But with every lost opportunity to gain points an early spring solstice seems a week closer. Thanks to a Rangers loss Monday night, the Flyers are still five points out of the eighth spot, but they lost a game in hand they had over the idle Blueshirts.
Oh, and a bunch of other teams are still ahead of them in the East, too.
Meanwhile, the Islanders are leaving the Flyers and Rangers in the dust. Now 20-16-4 (44 points), the Isles have gone 7-1-1 in their last nine games, a pair of wins over the Flyers along the way, and have roared into a tie with Ottawa for sixth in the conference.
"We keep going," Mike Knuble said. "Thursday is another game (against the slipping Senators). Obviously we're going to start needing some help, but all we can do is worry about the games we have to play. You've got to win the games in front of you ... and keep your fingers crossed that other teams can help you out."
Having kept his team in the game until it imploded late in the third period, having made 28 saves in his Flyers starting debut, Mason had an unpleasant peek at what Ilya Bryzgalov has been seeing all season...
Too many odd-man rushes, most coming via goofy, gambling turnovers by an offense that simply can't compete with the other guys at even strength. Or does it just seem that way from a goalie's vantage point?
"We're a good team," Claude Giroux said yet again. "Obviously the standings (position) is maybe not strong, but we're a good team. We're a team that can play against any team in the league."
Consider that a 12th place rallying cry.
"We're not going to quit," Brayden Schenn said. "Obviously it's tough, but we're not just going to fold the tent and pack it in for the year."
For the Flyers, Mason's performance was likely the one thing they would want to roll up and take with them. His best moment was with a save on a freely breaking Kyle Okposo with his gloved right hand, just the second Flyers goalie ever to play with that opposite hand.
Hey, trivia helps pass the time when your team is in the midst of an expedited burial.
"I felt really good," Mason said. "Over the course of the next little while I have to get a little more comfortable out there with the defensemen and forwards and figuring out systems, but overall I felt really well."
The Flyers largely carried the play early on, and were able to forge a lead at 6:28 when Giroux made a long lead pass to Jakub Voracek. His backhand shot was sort of turtled by Islanders goalie Evgeni Nabokov, but he slowly carried it back into the net. One video replay later it was 1-0.
The Isles tied it with a Matt Moulson shot that deflected off Flyers defender Bruno Gervais and snuck past Mason for 1-1.
The game, featuring but one minor penalty for each team, slowed until late in the second, when Isles pressure forced the Flyers to run around. Finally, the Isles jumped on an ill-advised Brayden Schenn drop pass in the neutral zone and cruised on in. A cross-ice Colin McDonald pass was caught and wristed home by Michael Grabner, giving the Isles a 2-1 lead with 2:18 left in the second.
"Obviously," Schenn said, "I could have gotten it deep."
It seemed to sap the Flyers of not only their energy, but their wits. Perhaps not realizing what the standings math says, they didn't have the push to even come close in the third period to a tying goal, this despite Mason giving them repeated chances right up until late. It was one of those Mason saves off a partial breakaway by John Tavaras that left the puck laying just outside the crease, and then an unwitting Erik Gustafsson - in full belly slide - slid into it, knocking the puck in for 3-1 with 1:17 left.
Laviolette responded by pulling Mason for an extra attacker, and Casey Cizikas put the finishing touches on with an empty netter.
Speaking of empty, that's what the view of the postseason appears to be. But then, it's baseball season.
Can October be that far off?
For the Flyers, it can't come soon enough.